News Coverage: Rahm Emanuel

Chicago voters will get a chance to weigh in on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to shop for electricity in bulk to cut utility bills when they go to the polls in November. The City Council’s Finance Committee agreed Friday to put the referendum on the ballot, the first step toward making Chicago the nation’s largest city to jump to a new provider.

Chicago has quietly embarked on a dramatic change in 911 dispatch to free police officers to respond to the most serious crimes, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy disclosed Thursday. The city's outdated dispatch policy sent police officers to 70 percent of all 911 calls received, compared to 30 percent in other major cities.

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a deepening standoff with the Chicago Teachers Union this summer, allies and political messengers close to him have once again emerged to take a tactical fight public on his behalf.

Carrying signs demanding “pre-college, not pre-priso,” and “caps and gowns, not cuffs and bars,” high school students and organizers clad in bright blue and green t-shirts protested revisions to the CPS Student Code of Contact outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office on Monday.

New Chicago restaurants will have fewer inspectors from City Hall darkening their doors in a move Mayor Rahm Emanuel said is designed to help the businesses get off the ground. It's the latest push to cut government red tape from the mayor, who says he wants to make the city more business-friendly.